Boxscore

Paul Egwuonwu scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half to lead Northwest Nazarene to a 78-69 road win at Montana State Billings.

Egwuonwu, made five of six field goal attempts and all five of his foul shots in the period as NNU (6-7, 2-4) overcame a 10-point deficit late in the first stanza to win by nine.

MSUB (4-10, 2-5) used a 15-2 run to grab the early advantage at 29-19, but the Crusaders closed the half with a 6-2 run to pull to within 36-30 at the break.

NNU claimed its first second-half tie with 11:49 remaining (49-49), then went ahead for good at 64-58 on back-to-back three-point plays by Brian Barkdoll and Anthony Golden.

Barkdoll, who had 16 points and seven rebounds converted a basket and free throw to break the tie. Golden, who had all 11 of his points after intermission, then hit a trey.

MSUB closed back to within three points on just one occasion the rest of the way.

In addition to Egwounwu, Barkdoll and Golden, the Crusaders' Darious Walker was in double figures with 12 point. Lateef Williams had five steals as NNU more than tripled MSUB (13-4) in that category.

The Yellowjackets also had four players in double figures, led by Robert Mayes with 15 points. Jaxon Myaer netted 14 and also had five assists while playing 40 minutes. DeAndre Chambers and Raason Young each had 12.

Both teams were efficient as NNU made 56 percent (28 of 50 including 15 of 25 in the second period), while MSUB converted on 26 of 47 (55.3) including nine of 15 treys.